It takes no compromise to give people their rights. —Harvey Milk

May 23, 2015

It was the strangest thing. I wrote a couple of letters yesterday and when they were sealed in their envelopes I reached in my desk drawer for stamps. For some reason, of the several different kinds that I had on hand, I peeled off two Harvey Milk stamps—I peeled off the first two that I’ve ever used from of a sheet that I’ve had for a long time. A bit later I was reading The Advocate and realized that it was Harvey Milk’s birthday. There is even a hashtag that I didn’t know about: ‪#‎HarveyMilkDay‬

Harvey Milk, Castro Street, San Francisco

Picking out the Milk stamps was the oddest coincidence, but one that reminded me, once again, that we owe so very much to America’s civil rights leaders. Happy Birthday, Harvey. You helped change our lives for the better.

The straightforward simplicity of your words was cheered around the world:It takes no compromise to give people their rights … it takes no money to respect the individual. It takes no political deal to give people freedom. It takes no survey to remove repression.

And, sadly, like so many others who championed civil rights it cost you your life. We will never forget, Harvey Bernard. We will never forget.